To the BBC, which has received a rather scathing letter from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over a controversial documentary on Palestine. The Conservative party leader blasted the BBC 2 film released last week – titled ‘Gaza: How to Survive A Warzone’ – which was narrated by none other than, er, the son of a Hamas official and has questioned whether licence fee payers’ cash has been paid to the terrorist organisation. Dear oh dear…
The documentary sparked outrage last week after it emerged that the father of its child narrator was a Hamas deputy minister. Initially the broadcaster pointed blame at production company Hoyo Films for not disclosing the Hamas link, despite evidence that the corporation had regular involvement with Hoyo producers. Amid growing accusations that the film was biased, the programme was pulled from BBC iPlayer – although the Beeb has suggested it may become available again after further ‘due diligence’ has been carried out. In a statement, the organisation acknowledged the ‘family connections of the film’s narrator’ and has promised to ‘add some more detail to the film before its re-transmission’. How very interesting…
This hasn’t satisfied Badenoch, however, who has in a letter to BBC boss Tim Davie called for a probe into any ‘potential collusion with Hamas’ and the ‘possibility of payment’ to terrorists. The Tory leader went on:
The inquiry will, however, need to go much further. There have been repeated and serious allegations of systemic and institutional bias against Israel in the BBC’s coverage of the war. These include repeated drawing of a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas; the seemingly endless revelations of bias and malpractice at BBC Arabic; the views of some staff members expressed candidly on social media; the actions of certain individual journalists, including senior figures; and the practice of interviews where Israeli interlocutors are robustly interrogated and Palestinian officials can speak with little challenge.
In fact, the Tory leader has even threatened to pull her party’s support for the Beeb’s licence fee if there isn’t ‘serious action’ taken over the documentary. Will BBC bigwigs now conduct an inquiry? Stay tuned…
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